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The Single UNIX &reg; Specification, Version 2<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group

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<h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1384">&nbsp;</a>NAME</h4><blockquote>
man - display system documentation
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1385">&nbsp;</a>SYNOPSIS</h4><blockquote>
<pre><code>

man <b>[</b>-k<b>]</b><i> name</i>...
</code>
</pre>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1386">&nbsp;</a>DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>man</i>
utility writes information about each of the
<i>name</i>
operands.
If
<i>name</i>
is the name of a standard utility,
<i>man</i>
will at a minimum
write a message describing the syntax
used by the standard utility, its options and operands.
If more information is available, the
<i>man</i>
utility will provide it in an implementation-dependent manner.
<p>
An implementation may provide information for values of
<i>name</i>
other than the standard utilities.
Standard utilities that are listed as optional and that
are not supported by the implementation
either will cause
a brief message indicating that fact to be displayed
or will cause a full display of information as described previously.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1387">&nbsp;</a>OPTIONS</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>man</i>
utility supports the <b>XBD</b> specification, <a href="../xbd/utilconv.html#usg"><b>Utility Syntax Guidelines</b>&nbsp;</a> .
<p>
The following option is supported:
<dl compact>

<dt><b>-k</b>
<dd>Interpret
<i>name</i>
operands as keywords to be used in searching a
utilities summary database that contains a brief
purpose entry for each standard utility
and write lines from the summary database
that match any of the keywords.
The keyword search produces results that
are the equivalent of the output of the following command:
<pre>
<code>
grep -Ei '
<i>name</i>
<i>name</i>
' <i>summary-database</i>
</code>
</pre>

This assumes that the
<i>summary-database</i>
is a text file with a single entry per line;
this organisation is not required and the example using
<i><a href="grep.html">grep</a></i>
<b>-Ei</b>
is merely illustrative of the type of search intended.
The purpose entry to be included in the database
consists of a terse description of the purpose of the utility.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1388">&nbsp;</a>OPERANDS</h4><blockquote>
The following operand is supported:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>name</i><dd>A keyword or the name of a standard utility.
When
<b>-k</b>
is not specified and
<i>name</i>
does not represent one of the standard utilities, the results are unspecified.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1389">&nbsp;</a>STDIN</h4><blockquote>
Not used.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1390">&nbsp;</a>INPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1391">&nbsp;</a>ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</h4><blockquote>
The following environment variables affect the execution of
<i>man</i>:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>LANG</i><dd>Provide a default value for the internationalisation variables
that are unset or null.
If
<i>LANG</i>
is unset or null, the corresponding value from the
implementation-dependent default locale will be used.
If any of the internationalisation variables contains an invalid setting, the
utility will behave as if none of the variables had been defined.


<dt><i>LC_ALL</i><dd>
If set to a non-empty string value,
override the values of all the other internationalisation variables.

<dt><i>LC_CTYPE</i><dd>
Determine the
locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as
characters (for example, single- as opposed to multi-byte characters
in arguments and in the summary database).
The value of
<i>LC_CTYPE</i>
need not affect the format of the information written about the name
operands.

<dt><i>LC_MESSAGES</i><dd>
Determine the locale that should be used to affect
the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error
and informative messages written to standard output.

<dt><i>NLSPATH</i><dd>
Determine the location of message catalogues
for the processing of
<i>LC_MESSAGES .
</i>
<dt><i>PAGER</i><dd>
Determine an output filtering command for writing
the output to a terminal.
Any string acceptable as a
<i>command_string</i>
operand to the
<i><a href="sh.html">sh</a></i>
<b>-c</b>
command is valid.
When standard output is a terminal device,
the manual-page output will be piped
through the command.
If the
<i>PAGER</i>
variable is null or not set,
the command will be either
<i><a href="more.html">more</a></i>
or another paginator utility documented in the system documentation.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1392">&nbsp;</a>ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1393">&nbsp;</a>STDOUT</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>man</i>
utility writes text describing the syntax
of the utility
<i>name,</i>
its options and its operands,
or, when
<b>-k</b>
is specified,
lines from the summary database.
The format of this text is implementation-dependent.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1394">&nbsp;</a>STDERR</h4><blockquote>
Used only for diagnostic messages.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1395">&nbsp;</a>OUTPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1396">&nbsp;</a>EXTENDED DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1397">&nbsp;</a>EXIT STATUS</h4><blockquote>
The following exit values are returned:
<dl compact>

<dt>0<dd>Successful completion.

<dt>&gt;0<dd>An error occurred.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1398">&nbsp;</a>CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1399">&nbsp;</a>APPLICATION USAGE</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1400">&nbsp;</a>EXAMPLES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1401">&nbsp;</a>FUTURE DIRECTIONS</h4><blockquote>
The IEEE PASC 1003.2 Interpretations Committee has forwarded concerns about
parts of this interface definition to the IEEE PASC Shell and Utilities Working Group
which is identifying the corrections.
A future revision of this specification will align with
IEEE Std. 1003.2b when finalised.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1402">&nbsp;</a>SEE ALSO</h4><blockquote>
<i><a href="more.html">more</a></i>.
</blockquote><hr size=2 noshade>
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UNIX &reg; is a registered Trademark of The Open Group.<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group
<br> [ <a href="../index.html">Main Index</a> | <a href="../xshix.html">XSH</a> | <a href="../xcuix.html">XCU</a> | <a href="../xbdix.html">XBD</a> | <a href="../cursesix.html">XCURSES</a> | <a href="../xnsix.html">XNS</a> ]

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